Hi Folks, Yes the Cape is still here ! With two days of 30 to 50 mile per hour winds, I am surprised that there are still locust trees in my back yard. I'm also very glad that my boats weren't in the water yet to worry about.

I personally have not fished this last week and don't have anything solid to add to the last report other than that I have heard of several larger fish have been caught this week, before the wind came. These fish are in with the small ones, which there are plenty of them ! It seems that almost anywhere you go as long as there is tide running and the sun is shining, there are small stripers in the 12 to 20 inch range to be had fun with. The guys that are catching the bigger ones are using live herring. This report comes from Red River Beach in Harwich and was observed by the person that told me. Now, with all the latest issues about the decline of the herring in the runs, I know that the regulations as to the taking of herring, have been very drastically reduced. I thought the Harwich run was shut down to the taking of all herring ?? At any rate, I do know that the alewife runs are way down across the Northeast, due to many reasons, one of which is sportfishing related, so I will not be using ANY river herring this year for fishing bait. If I want to weed through the little babies I can do it just as well with a live eel.

Which brings up the fact that the live eel bait business, coupled with the elver and glass eel poaching, has also depleted the natural stocks of eels in our waters on the east coast. Here are two examples of a possible detrimental effect that our striper fishing has had on the natural fish populations. Now I am sure that there are arguments that the stripers naturally foraged these baitfish into decline, or that its cyclic, or a water quality issue, but I'm inclined to believe that it is more human related. It is important that we as individuals, think conservatively about how we fish and what we take from the waters. Sometimes there is more to the issue than a glossy publication, touting the economic benefits to a fishery. Get out of the office and go fishing !